Porto: The city of tiles

It’s a rare case when your sightseeing and wowing begins a few seconds after you leave your train in a new destination. Yep, it starts just in the train station! That’s exactly what happens when you arrive in São Bento – Porto’s central train station. The whole interior is covered by tiles depicting Portuguese history, huge walls entirely made of blue tiles. It looks more like a museum than a train station. That’s how Porto welcomes its guests!

Then come the buildings with their facades entirely covered by tiles, although this time the tiles are of any color – red building near the green one, which is besides the yellow one and the yellow one is followed by the pink, pink is besides the blue building, and near it there’s another one with green tiles. An amazing burst of colors! When strolling in Porto you just keep looking up to the buildings all the time and seems like you can never get tired of them, they all are unique, they all are different, and each and every one of them has its unique charm.

If you want to see the biggest burst of colors you should go down to Ribeira – the riverside Porto. This area of the town has the most vibrant atmosphere and the most gorgeous scenes one can ever imagine. And if you happen to be here at sunset, that’s an extra bonus. The colorful buildings, quiet river, small ships, and the sunset – perfect ingredients for happiness.

And the food! Without it the happiness is not perfect 😀 Well, should I mention those pastries of Porto? They are incredible! And francesinha – the sandwich originated in Porto. Unlike Porto being a burst of colors, francesinha is a burst of calories! It’s a layered dish with bread and all possible kinds of meat – steak, roast meat, several kinds of sausages, ham, and all of this is covered by a thick layer of melted cheese. So make sure you are really hungry when you order this dish 😀

Porto is definitely one of those cities I want to revisit again. I’m sure there’s so much more to explore in this culturally rich city.

Absolutely stunning photos! Although I have to say my favourite is the one with the cat and the fish, hahaha. I’m dying to go to Porto (mainly for the port ;)), but this post has deffo inspired me a lot more to actually book my visit and see other sights in the town! Oooh, what about the cafe Majestic makes it so well known? It looks kinda similar to the Cafe Central in Vienna, which was beautiful!

Thank you so much 😊 Porto is definitely worth a visit, so go ahead and have lots of fun there! 😊 And don’t miss a coffee at Majestic, it’s one of the oldest cafes in the world and it’s definitely gorgeous inside. Have a nice trip! 😊

I completely agree with you that sometimes you get that WOW as soon as you exit the train station and can see why you had that reaction at Porto. Your pictures go hand in hand with everything you described – WOW indeed! Thanks for publishing this lovely piece you really “sell” Porto as a place to visit!

As an inhabitant of Porto, thanks for the splendid photos and the beautiful words. After all these decades, it’s seems incredible how I still get passionated when I look at my town as if it were for the first time. Hope you come back and enjoy Porto again, as we are really friendly people. Thanks!

With so many buildings built side by side, Porto seems to be really crowded. But the colors are totally vibrant. Street level scenery also seems to be really nice; walking on those cobblestone pathways must be like walking back in time.

Porto has such unbelievable beauty. I love the charm of all the colored homes by the water and the mosaics/tiles that pieced together become a stunning piece of art! Thanks for putting this on my radar. 🙂